Preferiria besar a un wookie!

Room Defender

Protect your cubicle or office with this motion-sensing Room Defender.

Every first person shooter has a level where you have to get past a bunch of automated motion-detecting turret sentries in order to get to your objective (likely rescuing the progeny of somebody with mega-influence). It's FPS 101. Now you can live out those FPS scenarios in the real world with the Room Defender and still live to tell about it.

Idle hands too

Under German employment law, women under the age of 55 may be forced into prostitution or lose their benefits. This is deranged (via Knowledge is Power).

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year. Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

January 29, 2005

Storage networking

PERRUQUE: A French idiomatic expression meaning work one does for oneself in the guise of work done for an employer, as when one photocopies personal material on the office account, or the like. In The Practice of Everyday Life, Michel de Certeau construes the idea as a socio-cultural trope of sorts, in which the socially weak (e.g., those who must work for others) make use of the socially strong (e.g., the bosses) by carving out an independent domain within the circumstances imposed upon them from above.

Just because you are stuck in storage networking is no excuse to be mean to svelte, successful Paris Hilton. Pathetic. But such is the sheep-like morality of ressentiment. And I do not blame Paris in the slightest for (allegedly) making off with that dvd, the existence of which was theft in the first place.

Despite the haters, season three of The Simple Life is off to a promising start with the travails of helping out in auto-repair ("Which one's the engine?") and the snake-pit existence of ad agency internships. That Paris and Nicole are vanguardist intellectuals of heroic resistance via "la perruque" is made obvious in the facial expressions of ad agency types so possessed with rage at photocopier misuse and slightly misplaced mail that they have forgotten, or do not care, that their little tyrannies will be televised.

Madonna: What It Feels Like For A Girl

Google news

This little pop culture blog is going to attract a quarter-million page views in the month of January '05... So what would it take for the Flea to be searched and listed by the Google newsbot? There is some pivotal e-journalism going down here, after all.

11-pounder

Kate Stelnick, a petite college student weighing in at 115 pounds, took the Denny’s Beer Barrel challenge on Wednesday. They almost laughed her out of the restaurant when she placed her order. Turns out she was the one laughing (and burping) on the way out.

Survivor Canada

A Canadian communication studies undergrad wants to be on Survivor. Yep. Canada. Lots of snow (via Raymi).

You may ask yourself, why don't you just go live on an island somewhere? Why do you need Survivor?

Quite true. I could just go live in the mountains and eat dirt, or get abondoned on some desert isle if I really wanted to live out a true survivor fantasy. Yet there's just something about competing with others that makes it that much more interesting. Who can resist the opportunity to tackle a 30 foot vertical maze, or navigate a tropical obstacle course? And besides, humans need companionship, otherwise they'd end up naming and talking to a shipwrecked volleyball named "Wilson".

Jet engine

Mars Up Close

Ever since Spirit and Opportunity began relaying images and data from Mars in January 2004, geologists following their explorations from Earth have employed a lexicon unusual for scientists, referring to martian "blueberries," "popcorn," and "deep-fried," "batter-coated" blobs, among other things.

January 28, 2005

Sushi

Japanese animation, Hello Kitty, samurais, ninjas, and Sushi are really popular right now! Here's a wild recipe that's super easy to make and super fun to eat as a light and fruity snack! This recipe transforms the much loved Twinkie into a hip and tropical flavored treat.

PostSecret

Tune

London A-Z

Fifth place does not do justice to the London A-Z. This was the first gift my cousin gave me when I arrived in England years ago and for my first year in London there were few days I travelled any distance at all without it.

Wooden Mirror

The piece explores the line between analog and digital. In the essence of the piece is the notion of inflicting digital order on a material that is as analog as it gets: wood. I was hoping to take the computational power of a computer and video camera , and seamlessly integrate them into the physicality warmth and beauty of a wooden mirror.

Duck Dodgers

20 Questions

This is the personality test that leaves the rest behind. It does make judgment calls, and it does assess your role in society, so faint of heart beware.

My result may be found in the extended entry. I am liking it.

You are a WEDL--Wacky Emotional Destructive Leader. This makes you a Anarchist.

You don't give a damn. When push comes to shove, you just forget about it--it's just not worth the heartache. What this means for others is that dealing with you can be aggravating, because they find they can't get you motivated about things they care about. What this means for you is that you are happier, calmer, and saner then they are on their best days.

You are near-immune to criticism, and those who know you well acknowledge and respect that. You may come across as lazy, but the truth is that you find little to get worked up about. Regardless, you have slews of friends, because they are fascinated by your world view, jealous of your lifestyle, and drawn to the fact that you are hilarious to be around.

You are a pillar in a sea of hot-bloodedness. You have a sweet tooth.

Of the 82785 people who have taken this quiz since tracking began (8/17/2004), 2.9 % are this type.

Mind the gap

Hebdomad

The mad rhetorical skills of this penis enlargement ad stood out from the rest of the spammer dross. I particularly enjoyed the use of the term hebdomad.

No Ruse ... Actual Skill! Magnify your phallus.

No Forgery - Literal Science! The equivalent type of enquiry that maid other marvel medications, has now produced a revolutionary herbaceous pill that can increment your penis rate by 1" to 5"
in precisely a couple of short hebdomads! Just eat 1 these pills each twenty-four hours... It will build your penis increment a immense 41%!

Autopsy

The autopsy table is a waist-high stainless steel table with running water to facilitate washing away all the blood that is released during the procedure. The autopsy table is a slanted tray (for drainage) with raised edges (to keep blood and fluids from flowing onto the floor).

January 26, 2005

The Eldritch Influence

"There is an ineffible rightness about Lovecraft. There is an ineffable rightness about the mythos that he came up with and what was later codified and described as the Cthulhu mythos. And I always think it is interesting is that he isn't the one that was codifying it. There's people who came after him who said "Well, no you have to understand this is what Nyarlathotep was and this is what Cthulhu was and first you get the Old Ones and then you get the starfish-headed barrel things" and stuff like that. And he really... he didn't do that. He simply gave you a vision of an impossibly inhospitable universe in which we are screwed." - Neil Gaimen

Lovecraft afficianados should purchase a copy of The Eldritch Influence immediately. This is a contemporary classic of the documentary art, worth the price not only for its insight into Lovecraft's life and character but for interviews with Neil Gaimen, Ramsey Campbell and Lovecraft scholar, S.T. Joshi.

May not all mankind be a mistake--an abnormal growth--a disease in the system of Nature--an excrescence on the body of infinite progression like a wart on the human hand? Might not the total destruction of humanity, as well as of all animate creation, be a positive boon to Nature as a whole?
- H.P. Lovecraft

Eldritch fruit

Starry Wisdom

The natal horoscope of H.P. Lovecraft. And the horoscope again, interpreted (in French) in ways that suggest a sporty disposition and an intolerance for solitude. Even the stars themselves are confounded by his existence!

The Collect Call of Cthulhu

The Cult's ceremony in full swing -- a congregation of ROBED AND HOODED MEN AND WOMEN, gathered around a black altar carved with odd angles and unearthly designs on which the Necronomicon rests. The CULT LEADER, a big man wearing a robe with the green visage of Cthulhu emblazoned on it, stands behind the altar. A single hanging electric bulb dimly lights the scene.

Lower Manhattan

My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration in the teeming labyrinths of ancient streets that twist endlessly from forgotten courts and squares and waterfronts to courts and squares and waterfronts equally forgotten, and in the Cyclopean modern towers and pinnacles that rise blackly Babylonian under waning moons, I had found instead only a sense of horror and oppression which threatened to master, paralyse, and annihilate me.

Postcard to Clark Ashton Smith

Greetings from a convention of those who admire the galaxy of nameless icons! Too bad Ar-Ech-Bi who was here last month could not stay over & participate. Have an epistle to Averoigne started & will be returning the unholy shipment before long. Trust things have been going well in Zothique & Hyperborea. Yrs. by the unuttered yellow sign. E'ch-Pi-el'

Cultist chic

This is part of my new collection about Lovecraft. the main idea about this collection was to make jewelry that, from a distance, doesn't look like what it really is. So 'cultists' can wear it all day long, only them will know :) Cthulhu, I mean, who else.. I will probably add a few 'sea weeds' around this one... Iah !

Cthulwho

Lovecraft on film

A catalogue of H.P. Lovecraft inspired films shambles from the void that is "the internet".

The unique works of H. P. Lovecraft have been the inspiration for many films, and have provided ideas & atmosphere for many more. Lovecraft was an influential writer of macabre fiction in the 1920's and 30's. Some modern critics complain that his stories seem too quaint or too garish for readers two generations later. Yet his stories are still in print in brand new editions -- and continue to get turned into movies.

January 25, 2005

The odd thing

The odd thing was that before God closed in on me, I was in fact offered what now appears a moment of wholly free choice. In a sense. I was going up Headington Hill on the top of a bus. Without words and (I think) almost without images, a fact about myself was somehow presented to me. I became aware that I was holding something at bay, or shutting something out. Or, if you like, that I was wearing some stiff clothing, like corsets, or even a suit of armor, as if I were a lobster. I felt myself being there and then, given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armor or keep it on. Neither choice was presented as a duty; no threat or promise was attached to either, though I knew that to open the door or to take off the corset meant the incalculable. The choice appeared to be momentous but it was also strangely unemotional. I was moved by no desires or fears. In a sense I was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the rein. I say "I chose," yet it did not really seem possible to do the opposite. On the other hand, I was aware of no motives. You could argue that I was not a free agent, but I am more inclined to think that this came nearer to being a perfectly free act than most that I have ever done. Necessity may not be the opposite of freedom, and perhaps a man is most free when, instead of producing motives, he could only say, "I am what I do." Then came the repercussion on the imaginative level. I felt as if I were a man of snow at long last beginning to melt. The melting was starting in my back — drip-drip and presently trickle-trickle. I rather disliked the feeling.
- C.S. Lewis, "Surprised By Joy" (1955)

Enith echennin na Thindren

Phial of Galadriel

Bring the magic of The Lord of the Rings into your home with this stunning replica of the Phial of Galadriel. Based on the magnificent phial given to Frodo by Galadriel, this phial enabled Frodo to escape from the monstrous Shelob spider. This replica, made of lucite, is 7 inches tall and includes a beautiful porcelain display stand.

These collectible staff pens are fun and I think I would look good in a Hobbit scarf. Six-hundred bucks U.S. for a Fellowship cloak is a bit steep. Finally, I have the perfect person in mind for these Lord of the Rings tongue rings...

Crime Scene Investigator

Herculaneum

Ancient Herculaneum is under threat from too many all too contemporary pigeons. Archaeologists have settled on an ecologically friendly/pigeon unfriendly solution to the problem.

After being buried in boiling mud when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the ruined ancient city of Herculaneum is now being deluged with acidic pigeon droppings. The situation has got so bad that archaeologists have called in three falcons to scare away the hundreds of pigeons that have set up home in the once-vibrant Roman town.

Well that explains that

A Japanese research team have identified a "perfect mummy" that may have been an administrative officer.

The mummified man was believed to be from a period 3500-4000 years ago, older than the era of Tutankhamen, the pharaoh of ancient Egypt who ruled in 1336-1327 BC, Yoshimura said, citing characteristics of the coffin.

The mummy, wearing a mask painted blue and red that still retained vivid shades, was of high academic value as it was "a perfect mummy that has escaped robbery and other damage", he said on his website late on Friday.

January 24, 2005

Bottom 100

Having seen Battlefield Earth, Hercules in New York, Vercingétorix, Captain America, Mortal Kombat, Barb Wire and The Avengers gives me seven of the IMDb Bottom 100 (the same result as Serial Deviant). Ok, Captain America was pretty bad but that largely because its opening sequence was so promisingly creepy and the rest was so banal. I thought Barb Wire was a lot of fun and hardly deserves a place in a list that leaves out Zardoz. I am also realizing that given Kylie Minogue's presence, I have no excuse for not having seen Street Fighter.

Dagoba

The Mission: to create the purest, most exquisite chocolate products available by melding ancient principles and modern methods, offer new and exotic products to the chocolate market and most importantly, help create a better world through organic/sustainable agriculture, ethical trading and eco-friendly manufacturing practices.

Aztec Elixir

Discover the secrets of the Aztec Indians, who indulged in revered potions of crushed cacao beans, chilies, water and spices believing the drink possessed aphrodisiac qualities. Our version is infused with ancho and chipotle chilies, Mexican vanilla beans, cinnamon and thickened with maize powder {cornmeal}.

According to the Holt Renfrew folks the Vosges Black Pearl Bar is next most popular. "Japanese ginger, wasabi, black sesame seeds and dark chocolate." Yum! Any theories about Wattleseed ice cream?

The ~ of Friendships

The Informalist considers the the "~" of friendships. "~" is a Chinese character that will not load on my browser due to the lack of the right character-set but which stands for "yuan". How do people become friends?

It all depends on ~,I believe. ~("yuan") is a Chinese word which can be roughly translated as "affinity". Yuan is a kind of mysterious connection sometimes said to have been forged from previous lifetimes. Even though yuan is essentially man-made, it still can't be contrived, which is why people who invoke yuan usually also advise one to ~~("Sui Yuan") --- to go with the flow of yuan. If there is yuan, an old Chinese saying says, one can meet even if a thousand miles lie in between them. If there is no yuan, one can be seperated by a wall and still not know each other.

Update: Thanks to an informed Flea-reader, I now hope to post the words 缘 (yuan) and 缘分 (yuanfen) properly. Just this sort of courteous tip is a perfect example of the predestined relationships of friendship and affinity made possible thanks to the blogosphere.

Be it resolved

January 22, 2005

Centennial Baby

Perhaps the ultimate in Canadian bar trivia lore arrives courtesy of an American Colleague of the Flea... Who was the first Canadian born into Canada's second century? Oh yes. There is a certain inevitable irony that Pamela Anderson, an all too successful Canadian, now has American citizenship.

And then...I just remembered some earlier critical Canadian bar trivia. Which is the true ultimate? Tricky.

Narnia

Oompa Loompas

The five children enter Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and are immediately asked to sign a contract and the first few lines read......." Hereas the management cannot be held responsible for any accidents, incidents, loss of property or life or limb.."( the words on the contract then become to small to read) now if that doesn't cause reason for alarm I don't know what does, Wonka and his group of blood thirsty midgets are setting these kids right up from the start.

Cellophane

Jacques Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist, was not trying to make something to cover your pork chops in 1908. He worked in a French textile firm and was looking for a way to make a stain proof tablecloth. He tried coating the cloth with a thin sheet of viscose film. No one would buy the tablecloths, but Brandenberger realized that the sheet of film held possibilities.

I am working on an assignment for my technology and society course: "The Secret Life of Objects" or something to that effect... I have reading Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" as a meditation on social change brought about by teleportation and am thinking along those lines for the less fantastic but no less extraordinary technologies we use all the time.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!

The studies could even shed light on whether, as is commonly held, Richard was betrayed by his supporters or whether Henry, subsequently crowned Henry VII, was a superior commander. Mutterings of confusion over where the battle took place emerged only comparatively recently. For years, the classic view of the battle was as recorded by William Hutton in the 18th century.

Bath

Yet more on surburban life in Roman Bath (and here is some earlier Roman Bath reportage).

A spa treatment followed by a trip to the suburbs for a bit of shopping and dining sounds like a day in the life of a wealthy suburbanite, but it also could describe someone's schedule from around the 1st century A.D., as archaeologists in Bath, England have identified an ancient suburb located outside of Bath's main city center.

January 21, 2005

Face Transformer

The Perception Laboratory's Face Transformer offers a convincing view of our parallel selves. The Flea cleans up nicely as a Modigliani painting and, with some minor Shopping of the Face Transformer result, my African self is better looking than the English version!

I already look like parallel universe evil me so I was better prepared than some might be. Except for the parallel universe Starfleet uniform. Still working on that part.

Aimee Mann: King of the Jailhouse

MT3

I am hoping Flea-readers might refer me to an MT3 expert blog design type person. Despite heroic efforts, trackbacks have been out since before xmas and TypeKey is still on the blink. It would also be great to make a Flea-skin for people who might like a light-on-dark gothy version of the blog.

Barefoot in Tokyo

the exhibition offered a rainbow of aspirations, eccentric designs, as well as experimentation with colors, materials and expressions. each pair of shoes alluded to an imaginary individual who might wear them.

Win without wounding

Professor Steve Tuck of the University of Miami refers to medieval and renaissance fighting manuals to argue that Roman gladiators rarely fought to the death. He also makes a rather important observation that is blindingly obvious once it is pointed out.

"The emperor Marcus Aurelius put salary caps on gladiators, and to get to this state of affairs they must have represented a massive capital outlay for their owners.

"Now, it makes no sense at all for the gladiators, at such cost, to be killed in battle, because it would be like throwing money away. The gladiators were meant to be recognised, similar to the famous sportspeople of today, and they had great status comparable to the highest levels of professional athletes.

"By that fact alone they are not disposable, and their owners would not expect to lose their investment every time somebody stepped out into the arena.

Hipparchus

Hipparchus' star catalog, long thought lost, has been found. On a statue. In plain sight.

A seven-foot-tall statue at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy, shows the god Atlas kneeling with a globe weighing on his shoulders. Atlas was sentenced by Zeus to hold up the sky, and the globe is a depiction of the night sky as seen from Earth, with pictures of Aries the ram, Cygnus the swan, Hercules the hero and other animals and people representing 41 constellations. The statue, known as the Farnese Atlas, is the oldest surviving pictorial record of Western constellations. It dates to Roman times, around A.D. 150, and is known to be a copy of an earlier Greek work.

'Cup and ring' carvings

This website is the celebration of rock carvings made by Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people in Northumberland in the north east of England, between 6000 and 3500 years ago. Over 1000 carved panels are known and most of them are still located in the countryside.

Architecture of Density

One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of its citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings. In Architecture of Density, Wolf investigates these vibrant city blocks, finding a mesmerizing abstraction in the buildings' facades.

Galactic cluster foul-up

The ESA Portal hosts an image of galactic clusters colliding. This is too big for my nervous system to process properly (via Mr. Sun).

The event details what the scientists are calling the perfect cosmic storm: galaxy clusters that collided like two high-pressure weather fronts and created hurricane-like conditions, tossing galaxies far from their paths and churning shock waves of 100-million-degree gas through intergalactic space. The tiny dots in this artist's concept are galaxies containing thousand million of stars.

Woolamaloo Gazette

Mr Gordon, a senior bookseller who rarely mentioned work in his blog and did not directly identify his branch of Waterstone's, said he had offered to stop posting anything about his working life online when the company called a disciplinary meeting. According to his union, Waterstone's rejected his plea despite it not having any guidelines on whether its employees are allowed to keep weblogs.

"This wasn't a sustained attack," Mr Gordon told the Guardian. "I was not deliberately trying to harm the company. I was venting my spleen. This was moaning about not getting your birthday off or not getting on with your boss. I wasn't libelling anyone or giving away trade secrets."

Since when did Amazon buy Waterstone's? Or am I missing something about that interface? And if Amazon owns Waterstone's, and Waterstone's is firing bloggers, what effect might this have on uberblogger plugs for Amazon goods and services? (Or my own Amazon wish list.)

January 19, 2005

1983

Of the many brilliant things about Napoleon Dynamite the most brilliant was a time-machine set for a trip back to 1983. What I would not give to make such a journey (and I freaking love it that New Order would be the only people on that Top of the Pops list for 1983 to perform live).

Nerd Watch Museum

Our collection spans hundreds of models, dozens of manufacturers and infinite gadgetry. Since your hosts are of the LCD generation, rather than LED, liquid crystal display models have been the focus of our collecting. Many LCD timepieces played an important role in the evolution of digital wristwear, and we are striving to present as many as possible in our virtual museum.

LED Belt Buckle

I will not rest until I own an LED Belt Buckle. I could use it to, for example, quote Churchillian sayings or enigmatic Roman catch phrases or better yet to express my undying devotion to SondraK.

"Bling-Blaow! This LED Belt Buckle is like having a piece of the future on your waist. Be one of the first people to floss this new LED Belt Buckle. You can put up to 256 characters on it. Wanna make a statement? WELL BRING IT ON! Write whatever you want and let it scroll across the screen! Your name , your number, your hood! Stand out in the club without a bottle of bubb. Scroll on playa.

This is the one of a kind ceremonial robe that Kyle MacLachlan wore as the character "Paul Atreides" in the final scene of the film. It is a very thick and heavy, weighing about 17 pounds. Since part of the film was shot in Mexico, it was hand made by local artisans.

Interesting to note is that the futuristic characters all the way around the robe spell out names backwards. It looks like some of the cast members names were embroidered into the robe when it was made. Here is just a sampling of the many names and words around the robe's edge:

Including the words "gyre, toves, and brillig"... brilliant! Though Damaskino's robes from Blade II make a better fashion statement.

Apollo Guidance Computer

This report describes my successful project to build a working reproduction of the 1964 prototype for the Block I Apollo Guidance Computer. The AGC is the flight computer for the Apollo moon landings, with one unit in the command module and one in the LEM.

I built it in my basement. It took me 4 years.

If you like, you can build one too. It will take you less time, and yours will be better than mine.

January 18, 2005

Show Girl

Kylie Minogue is taking her Show Girl: Greatest Hits Tour to Australia. Better yet is a Victorian Arts Centre exhibition of more than 300 Kylie costumes.

London-based Kylie announced the tour in Melbourne on Friday at the opening of an exhibition of costumes and personal memorabilia she has donated to the Arts Centre. The collection charts Kylie's career from the denim overalls she wore as Charlene in Neighbours to the impossibly tight golden hot pants made famous in the video to her 2000 hit Spinning Around.

Postsecular

To summarise: the postsecular recognises both the tremendous advances made in the secular era, and at the same time that the spiritual impulse, far from being an archaic irrelevance, is innate and worthy of fostering. It says therefore that the secular world was right to reject the absolutist and authoritarian structures of the feudal era, but that it was wrong to reject the spiritual impulse along with those structures.

Tsunami

Human Virus Scanner

Of course, by posting a link to this Human Virus Scanner it takes on a memetic quality of its own.

During our research for "Don't Cross the Memes" we encountered several potent memetic viruses. Six months later we have perfected a simple yet effective human virus detector. Scan yourself, or scan your friends.

Void Mage

January 17, 2005

The puppet and the dwarf

An exhibition considers Freud's Moses and Monotheism and other original documents in the good doctor's own hand.

Furthermore, is not so-called exclusionary monotheist violence secretly polytheist? Does not the fanatical hatred of believers in a different god bear witness to the fact that the monotheist secretly thinks that he is not simply fighting false believers, but that his struggle is a struggle between different gods, the struggle of his god against "false gods" who exist as gods? Such a monotheism is effectively exclusive: it has to exclude other gods. For that reason, true monotheists are tolerant: for them, others are not objects of hatred, but simply people who, although they are not enlightened by the true belief, should nonetheless be respected, since they are not inherently evil.
- Slavoj Žižek, "The Puppet and the Dwarf" (2003)

1864

Cat Logic

09h09

Jean-Michel takes a picture of himself every morning at 09h09. This is exactly the sort of compulsive behaviour I have to avoid for fear of going mad. But fascinating. Also, I am envious for that boulangerie.

Money-Art

Money-Art is a clever idea and, if applied north of the border, might even make Canadian money more valuable. For example, if I applied for a grant to make Canadian Money-Art (via Raymi) (and so is this monitor-cleaning cat, btw).

Originally miniature-painted on one Dollar-bills
Also produced as limited-edition archival-artprints

Train spotting

Microtoss Train Spotting Simulator brings the power and excitement of one of the world's most favorite hobbies to your PC, placing you in the role of a trainspotter with unprecedented realism, exciting real-world challenges, and the tools to recreate almost any trainspotting experience in the world.

Big stars

Astronomers have identified the three biggest stars known to science. These are some very big stars.

If they were located in the same place as our own Sun - at the centre of the Solar System - the stars would stretch out further than the orbit of Jupiter. The red "supergiant" stars are more than 1.5 billion km across, pushing the previous record holder, Herschel's "Garnet Star", into fourth place.

Hypnodisk

In the 1800's, the European scientific community caught up with the rest of the world and noticed hypnosis. Entrepreneurial medical supply houses were quick to offer an optimistically comprehensive array of 'Scientifically Designed Aids to the Induction of Mesmerism" , of which the 'Hypnotic Spiral' is perhaps the most enduring.

Elephants

Compare Your Height

Compare your height with a variety of celebrities. Who knew John Kenneth Galbraith was 6'8"? And I had no idea I was taller than Kate Moss. Kylie Minogue is not on the list but I already knew she was 5' 1" (hence the "pop pixie" description).

Graffiti archaeology

Manhole covers

This may require some thought. You take your squares, for instance. A square cover you can tip up on edge and drop through the hole on the diagonal, if you follow me. Similarly with ovals. A circular hole, however, will defy the most determined efforts in this regard. (Bear in mind that there's a lip around the inside of the manhole that the cover rests on; this effectively makes the diameter of the manhole an inch or so less than that of the cover.) This means manholes are one of the few things in the universe that are absolutely goofproof.

January 13, 2005

Kylie musical

The Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears has an excellent idea: a Kylie musical.

Apart from already working as a songwriter for Minogue, Shears reckons the pop princess could inspire a big-budget film musical.

"Somebody needs to write the woman a damn movie musical and if I got the go-ahead, you can bet I would be game," he said. The idea of a musical based on Minogue's songs has been floating around for a couple of years, but given the sales success of her greatest hits CD Ultimate Kylie, it's likely the idea may actually get off the ground.

Bird Technology

Top 100 Toys

The Top 100 Toys of all time. I had forgotten my Finger Frights and I still have a Quicksilver Maze kicking around somewhere. Those Wade Whimsies have to be collectible too... Time to rummage around in my parent's basement. Failing that, eBay.

Habitat

A few days ago someone asked me if I read blogs. "When I’m on land," I said, cleverly creating the impression that I am often not on land. I gained nothing through this lie. In fact I spend most of my time on land, not because I enjoy it, but because it is my habitat. That’s the most important thing to consider when looking for somewhere to live. Habitat, habitat, habitat- the three "h"s.

Firefox

All you've got to do is type "about:config" into your address bar, wait for it to load, then alter the following entries: change "network.http.pipelining" to "true", "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true" and lastly "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to 30, meaning it will be able to make 30 requests at once.

Chantico

'Chantico', a new gourmet drinking chocolate beverage, will be offered at Starbucks shops in the United States and Canada beginning January 8, 2005. Described as 'drinking a melted truffle', the chocolate has an intense, full-bodied flavor and a rich, silky texture that builds on the tradition of European drinking chocolate.

Millau

This black and white High Resolution Camera (HRC) image of the newly-opened Millau bridge in southern France was acquired by ESA's Proba microsatellite on 11 December 2004. The bridge is the world's highest road bridge.

The multi-disciplinary work of Floria Sigismondi encompasses film, video, photography and sculpture. Incorporating early film and painterly aesthetics Floria creates a hyper-surrealism based on the figure, using images derived from hallucinatory dream-states.

January 11, 2005

Little black dress

Baz Luhrmann's Chanel No. 5 commercial features Nicole Kidman. But can I find the ad on-line? Noooooo... Oh, wait, here it is. Wow... I can't breathe. Wow. Meanwhile, New Line Cinema's latest auction features a black cocktail dress, and heels, worn by Nicole Kidman in "Birth". So Coco.

Don't miss your chance to own this stunning dress worn in Birth by the beautiful and talented Nicole Kidman. Kidman plays Anna and wears this gorgeous back cocktail dress and Gucci heels in this dramatic mystery.

Visitors

The Flea rattles its ghostly chains in welcome to visitors from the Netherlands Antilles, Ethiopia and Libya. Libya? It is particularly gratifying to learn I am lowering office productivity in the Sahara. Hey, check out that on-line Libyan information portal.

Will Libya be your next destination?
Yes
No
I am not Sure
Results

I notice Libya On Line is sponsored by Coca Cola and British Airways who should both be advertising at the Flea.

Mentawai Islands

His mother informed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade today.

"She said she had spoken to Sam by phone and he told her he was safe," Mr Downer said in a statement."She added that, because he was isolated from the outside world, he had been unaware of the tsunami.'

Eloi

The Diplomad offers a disturbing commentary on southeast Asian reaction to the tsunami catastrophe.

In Jakarta, aside from flags at half-staff, we have seen no signs of mourning for the victims: while employees and dependents of the American embassy spent their holiday loading trucks and putting together medicine kits, the city's inhabitants went ahead with New Year's parties; nightclubs and shopping centers are full; and regular television programming continues. At least 120,000 of their fellow countrymen are dead, and Indonesians hardly talk about it, much less engage in massive charitable efforts. The exceptionally wealthy businessmen of the capital -- and the country boasts several billionaires -- haven't made large donations to the cause of Sumatran relief; a few scattered NGOs have done a bit, but there are no well-organized drives to raise funds and supplies. We have seen nothing akin to what happened in the USA following the 9/11 atrocity, or the hurricanes in Florida of this past year.

The Sri Lankan's words echo in my mind every day, ""Why do we want to bother with this? We all know you Americans will do everything." With the exception of handful of Western countries, most of the world would appear inhabited by the sort of Eloi-type creatures depicted in that old sci-fi flick based on H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, passively watching as flood waters or Morlocks drag their fellows away.

The Diplomad then asks if this state of affairs suggests a moral superiority of "Western civilization". Well, I can only imagine what it is like on the ground and how sickening it must be to watch the showboats of the international organizations doing nothing, taking credit and getting well paid for it even as untold human misery takes place under their aegis. But, respectfully, I do not think Western civilization has much to do with the success or failure of genuine helping intervention unless that category excludes Canada's manifest unpreparedness and includes the generosity of Japan. A better comparison is between the reaction of informed, enfranchised citizens of liberal democracies with that of people living in (and, for those few in power, governing) the dictatorships and theocracies that still blight the world.

I had a friend who grew up in Dubai who, as a non-citizen and as a woman, had no rights whatsoever and whose life was lived entirely at the sufferance of the ruling kleptocracy and its surrogates. My assumption was that she would be pleased to find herself in Canada and to take the opportunity to do and say the things she could never have done or said in the U.A.E. Far from it. Her horizon was restricted to fashion and partying and yearning for the lost shopping malls of Dubai. Now, I say this as someone who is pro-fashion, pro-shopping and, at least in principle, pro-partying. There is, however, the rest of life in which we have responsibilities to ourselves and each other and that ethical core seemed to be entirely undeveloped. The kind of consumer oblivion and indifference to calamity the Diplomad describes can be a consequence of the cynicism of those raised in political cultures of nihilism and deceit. But then we too in "the West" have plenty of people who could care less about anyone but themselves.

The Housewives Tarot is a kitschy "domestic divination deck" packaged in a mock recipe box. The artwork is thoroughly fifties in style, attitude, furnishings, and fashion. It's a light-hearted gift set for the complete Tarot beginner, or a novelty deck for the more experienced reader or collector.

Tarping

Clark Ashton Smith

A letter from H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith... for sale on eBay. I love it that the envelope is still kicking around.

From my catalogue of Lovecraft letters I offer another early letter from H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith. Lovecraft has a cold which may account for the relative brevity of the letter...HPL writes..."Your appreciated hope that I escape the grippe came just too late to save me from a mild attack! A cold after sneaking about for some two weeks finally developed into the popular malady and had me pinned securely down to the bed Saturday & Sunday."

The hippo and the tortoise

Yes, the tortoise is not the hippo's mum but we are still looking at a family.

A baby-hippopotamus that survived the tsumani waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombasa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsumani waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

Dark Side of the Banana

Relaxus

These Relaxus sandals are pointy yet strangely relaxing. Once I have moved into my new office I intend to stride about in them up and down the carpeted hallways in the archaeology building. Those archaeologists are going to be so freaking jealous.

Hundreds of miniature 'fingers' massage all the vital pressure points every step you take. As you walk around the house, it simultaneously stimulates and relaxes. Perfect around the pool or the beach.

Co-belligerent

I guess they don't allow contemporary musicians in the big tent - four years of Pat Boone and the Oak Ridge Boys it is. And that singing cop. But how many times can you listen to the National Anthem in a row, really?

Well, "bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy" to all that, my friends.

Though I am no fan of Kid Rock, or his lyrics, the disagreement between libertarians and socons at issue in his inaugural invitation explains most of the condescending flack I get from puritanical-types who claim to like what I write. Hey, go read something else.

The Shotgun

Has anyone else been watching in slightly horrified fascination as The Shotgun plunges headlong into a big, long, pitiable flamewar? I had noted its beginnings earlier, but it's really taken a turn for the... ridiculous.

Actually, this is also a good case for why I rule the comments section at the Flea with an iron fist.

Edna Krabappel

Linguistic

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.
An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.
You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view.
A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary.

You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

January 07, 2005

Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, is a recurrent favourite and has been played by: Sarah Churchill, Bette Davis (The Virgin Queen and The Private Lives Of Elizabeth and Essex), Glenda Jackson (Elizabeth R and Mary, Queen Of Scots), Flora Robson (three times), Claudette Colbert, and Jean Simmons among others. Recent movies have featured Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth) and Judi Dench (Shakespeare In Love) in the role, not forgetting the unforgettable portrayals by Miranda Richardson in Blackadder: a movie with Glenn Close was supposedly in production or pre-production but appears to have disappeared into development-hell. And yes I know that Quentin Crisp is not an actress – but it’s my site so I’ve included him.

Renaissance

Jessica Alba

Update: Sorry for the dead link (and the comments function on the blink). I cannot believe they substituted a tax-related news story for the Jessica Alba piece. Especially considering the bit where she dove into the swimming pool. It is an image that will haunt me. Sorry, Bill. I submit the multimedia section of another website that shows Jessica Alba playing football by way of apology.

Kylie to her fans

The Flea's relentless commitment to Kylie-media leaves me speechless at a thoughtful message from Kylie to her fans (not me specifically, you understand) included in an e-card connected to the release of her greatest hits album. Never has a lamp-shade looked more fetching!* Time to listen to these Kylie mash-ups over and over again.

*And I not trying to be mean by pointing out the lamp-shade either! Her army of gay fans have done no less.

Somebody once said to me, "Gay icons, there's a lot of tragedy in their lives. But you don't really have that." I said, "I've had a lot of tragic hairdos and outfits. I think that makes up for it!"

Cycle in the city

Bison bones

DNA analysis of ancient bison bones tells a new story of bison migration and may overturn current archaeological convention on human settlement of North America.

Lionel Jackson of the Geological Survey of Canada and Mike Wilson of Douglas College gave a talk on the latest findings Dec. 7 at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver. Their work relates to DNA findings from an Oxford University team that focused on bison, the most widespread and persistent large animals of the era.

Two big points come out of the Oxford study: Bison were in decline, for reasons not yet clear, as much as 10,000 years before ice and human hunters put pressure on them, and the ice-free corridor was closed at least during the peak of the ice age. Isolated from the rest of the continent by glaciers, the northern bison died out. All of today's bison are descendants of a small southern group that eventually spread back up north. It follows that nomadic hunting people may also have populated Western Canada from the south.

More controversial are claims made by the linked news article that suggest implications for contemporary land claims by First Nations people. A northward, rather than southward, migration in the paleolithic is of obvious interest to anthropologists such as myself. I fail to see how this new model in any way speaks to, let alone refutes, Canadian treaty obligations to First Nations peoples.

Great Dismal Swamp

Daniel Sayers is using archaeological method and oral history to piece together the story of fugitive slave communities in the islands of the Great Dismal Swamp.

A doctoral student from the College of William and Mary is spending a second year in the thickets of the Great Dismal Swamp in hopes of documenting the small communities fugitive slaves may have created. Daniel Sayers has located and begun examining six areas of relatively high ground, or islands - some on the swamp's North Carolina side - that may have been settled between the late 1600s and mid-1800s by slaves known as Maroons. Fugitive slaves from the West Indies or Guyana, or their descendants, were called Maroons.

"If there's runaways living in this swamp, they would be living on these islands," he said. "You can kind of see them here, you know."

January 06, 2005

Do it again

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
- G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy" (1908)

There are too many secrets in our hearts, yet God sees them all and weeps for us. And he's standing there, waiting for prodigal sons and daughters to return home, shed the weight and the burden, and live with Him.

Andúnië

A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used in building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends coming perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labour, in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man's distant forefathers had obtained their bulding material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said: 'This tower is most interesting.' But they also said (after pushing it over): 'What a muddle it is in!' And even the man's descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur: 'He is such an odd fellow! Imagine his using these old stones just to build a nonsensical tower! Why did not he restore the old house? He had no sense of proportion.' But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea.
- J.R.R. Tolkien

Early on, the filmmakers contacted me in a friendly fashion, and I responded in kind; I asked if they'd like to have a list of name pronunciations; and I said that although I knew that a film must differ greatly from a book, I hoped they were making no unnecessary changes in the plot or to the characters—a dangerous thing to do, since the books have been known to millions of people for decades. They replied that the TV audience is much larger, and entirely different, and would be unlikely to care about changes to the books' story and characters.

They then sent me several versions of the script—and told me that shooting had already begun. I had been cut out of the process. And just as quickly, race, which had been a crucial element, had been cut out of my stories. In the miniseries, Danny Glover is the only man of color among the main characters (although there are a few others among the spear-carriers). A far cry from the Earthsea I envisioned. When I looked over the script, I realized the producers had no understanding of what the books are about and no interest in finding out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence.

Given the impressive Sci Fi channel adaptations of Dune and Children of Dune (and Battlestar Galactica too), this is a serious disappointment. But then, I have already expressed my agreement with Le Guin on the broader issue of race and representation in speculative fiction and my frustration that Sci Fi Channel's version of Frank Herbert's characters portrayed them to be white. Imagine the uproar if, in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of Tolkien's stories, Frodo was played by, say, a Japanese or Moroccan actor and the silence on equivalent changes to Herbert or Le Guin's stories is revealing.

Flight 93

Knowledge Is Power links to a recording captured by a ham radio operator on September 11, 2001. It is difficult to listen to.

So, apparently, is the truth. Do me a favour... link to the official Flight 93 memorial site and the National Park Service Flight 93 memorial page. It is grotesque that the first Google hit for "Flight 93" is a website peddling conspiracies.

January 05, 2005

The astronomy of Middle Earth

Not only did various cultures around the world invent their own constellations, but they also had superstitions and/or explanations for the origin of the phases of the moon. Middle-earth is no exception. Tilion is said to be the driver of the Moon, while beautiful Arien is the driver of the Sun. Tilion was “moonstruck” by Arien (pun intended) and because of his love for her did not follow the driving instructions he was given by the Valar:

“But Tilion was wayward and uncertain in speed, and held not to his appointed path; and he sought to come near to Arien, being drawn by her splendour, though the flame of Anar scorched him, and the island of the Moon was darkened.” [The Silmarillion: 112]

Inflatable Museum

Welcome! The Inflatable Museum is a gathering place for objects, performances and environments that are resigned to instability. Artists explore the structural parameters of a virtual exhibition space by contrasting flat "cyber" space with images of inflatability.

Mug shots

There is something profoundly disconcerting about these 1940s mugshots and, I suppose, the idea of having a collection of them. That said, I purchased a couple late 19th-century tintypes (ambrotypes, actually) because the people depicted in them were utterly enigmatic and seemed to cry out to have their stories told (via ***Dave). I love the idea of a blog dedicated to "Flea Markets, Thrift Stores, Antique Shops, Garage & Estate Sales, Collecting, Odd Finds, Swaps" but these ski-masks are just creepy.

And then... there are these photographs from the Arkansas State Prison 1915-1937.

Irene

Her face is currently adorning a 69ft tall billboard in Times Square and the campaign hits the UK this week, amidst a little controversy over Dove's "exploitation" of the elderly.

"This is absolutely cynical. Itï¿½s just like using children in advertising," says psychologist Dr Mairead Tagg...which seems a little harsh on Irene if you ask us. She's old, not retarded.

While I would not have put it in quite these terms, Londonist is quite right nonetheless. The exploitation claim is yet another example of a mentality that finds exploitation everywhere even as it infantilizes the folks it purports to speak for.

Update November 28, 2011: Thanks to a Flea reader for pointing out the Campaign For Real Beauty site is no longer associated with Dove. I have removed the link.

Self-esteem

Scientific American considers self-esteem. I was particularly pleased by reports of a 1995 study by Edward F. Diener and Brian Wolsic of the University of Illinois and Frank Fujita of Indiana University South Bend (via Zacht Ei).

They obtained self-esteem scores from a broad sample of the population and then photographed everybody, presenting these pictures to a panel of judges, who evaluated the subjects for attractiveness. Ratings based on full-length photographs showed no significant correlation with self-esteem. Head-and-shoulders close-ups fared slightly better, but even this finding is dubious, because individuals with high self-esteem might take particular care to present themselves well, such as by wearing attractive clothing and jewelry. The 1995 study suggests as much: when the judges were shown pictures of just the participants' unadorned faces, the modest correlation between attractiveness and self-esteem fell to zero. In that same investigation, however, self-reported physical attractiveness was found to have a strong correlation with self-esteem. Clearly, those with high self-esteem are gorgeous in their own eyes but not necessarily so to others.

This discrepancy should be sobering. What seemed at first to be a strong link between physical good looks and high self-esteem turned out to be nothing more than a pattern of consistency in how favorably people rate themselves. A parallel phenomenon affects those with low self-esteem, who are prone to floccinaucinihilipilification, a highfalutin word (among the longest in the Oxford English Dictionary) but one that we can't resist using here, it being defined as "the action or habit of estimating as worthless." That is, people with low self-esteem are not merely down on themselves; they are negative about everything.

Comments

[Please see second update below]

We have come this close to getting TypeKey to work: but no luck! Don't be fooled by the apparently functioning interface. More to follow...

Update: Hi folks! I am passing on the following note regarding the Flea's continuing TypeKey travails... any suggestions from TypeKey people would be most welcome (but email them please, comments aren't functioning properly).

I realized that after both my template-editing attempts--the best-guess hack and hope for the best, followed by the slavish following of the tutorial--the comment entry form that shows upon logging into TypeKey had only a space for url, but not for name or e-mail. Perhaps as a result, the test comments I tried this morning showed as author "anonymous."

Any ideas on how we can encourage the comment entry form to include a space for a name and e-mail as well as a url?

Update 2 (from the worker mouse): TypeKey does now appear to be working. If you already have a login, please test out commenting on this post and let us know of any issues. (Well, besides the fact the the comment preview refuses to format line breaks--we know about that one.)

Skeptiseum

The Skeptiseum website hosted by CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. The mission of CSICOP is to investigate and critically examine paranormal and pseudoscientific claims: the former being reported phenomena that seem beyond the range of nature and normal human experience; the latter being claims that are alleged to be based on science, but have no scientific evidence in their support whatsoever. A skeptical approach is not dismissive but analytical, demanding that there be sufficient evidence in order for a claim to be accepted.

Burnt City

On this ancient piece that can be called the first animation of the world, the artist has portrayed a goat that jumps toward a tree and eats its leaves. The earthenware found in Burnt City, one of the most developed civilizations dating back to 5000 years ago, show the images of goat and fish more than any other subject. It seems these animals were used more than any other by the people of this city.

Lienzo de Quauhquechollan

In about 1400, the Quauhquecholteca settled in present-day San Martín Huaquechula, to the south-east of Mexico City. By fighting with the Spanish, the indigenous people hoped to rid themselves of the tyranny of the Aztecs and to gain their own land and riches. They described their military successes in pictograms in paintings such as the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan. Not long after this however, the Spaniards brutally overruled all of the peoples in Central America, including the Quauhquecholteca.

Hunley

Continuing archaeological work on the H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy warship, has produced a variety of approaches to preserving the array of materials that have been recovered.

The artifacts have taken scientists into uncharted waters. While preserving cork is nearly impossible, scientists are trying to find a way to save the corks that were used for stoppers on the Hunley crew's canteens. Paul Mardikian, the Hunley's senior conservator, and others on the project have used freeze-drying to remove the seawater from most things found in the Hunley. Or the items have been soaked in fresh water and chemical baths to leech out the saltwater that threatens to destroy them.

"A button seems like a simple artifact, but it's not," Mardikian says. "Some of the buttons are hollow and have seawater inside. They have threads of cloth attached to them. They are faded in some places, except where the thread protected them."

Bath

Recent archaeological finds in Bath suggest the "luxury housing estate and out-of-town shopping centre may need to be added to the long list of what the Romans did for Britain."

Excavations in Bath reveal that at least half a dozen elegant homes existed near each other and within easy reach of leisure areas. One villa was found while sprinkler pipes were being laid across a golf course. A second villa with mosaic floors was found a few hundred feet away.

David Musgrove, the editor of the BBC's History magazine, which reports the discovery in its January issue, said: "Bath was as much of a property hot spot then as it is now. The evidence suggests that Romano-Britons developed luxury, des res housing on the edge of the centre."